Coalition seeks sainthood for 5 African-Americans

From left, Pierre Toussaint, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Julia Greeley and Augustus Tolton are among five African-American candidates being supported for sainthood.
Creative Commons; Julia Greeley of Archdiocese of Denver

The founders of two religious orders and an African-American priest who had to train in Rome because no U.S. seminary would accept him are among five candidates being supported for sainthood by a new coalition of black Catholic organizations.

The initiative was announced July 31 at Xavier University in New Orleans, where a new resource center will be established to facilitate research on these candidates and other black Catholics.

Lining up behind the effort are Xavier’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Black Sisters Conference, the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association and the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons.

Although the Roman Catholic Church has many saints of African descent, it has no black American saints.

Scholarly research is important “for the larger church, understanding the role of African-Americans in building the church,” said Xavier President Reynold Verret. Documentation of a person’s life, including expressions of virtue and performance of miracles, is generally required for progress on the path to sainthood.

The candidates are:

Pierre Toussaint, 1766-1853, a former slave who parlayed his connections as a hairdresser to prominent New Yorkers into a career of charity.

Mother Henriette DeLille, 1813-1862, a mixed-race woman who founded Sisters of the Holy Family, a religious order based in New Orleans.

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, c. 1794-1882, who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore.

Father Augustus Tolton, 1854-1897, identified by Xavier as America’s first black Catholic priest, studied in Rome because no U.S. seminary would take him.

Julia Greeley, c. 1840-1918, a former slave who became known as Denver’s Angel of Charity for her support of poor families.

The five candidates all are in the early stages of the journey to sainthood, which in the Roman Catholic Church is a four-stage process. Mother Lange, Father Tolton and Ms. Greeley have attained the first level, in which a diocesan tribunal affirms that they lived lives of “heroic virtue.”

Mother DeLille and Mr. Toussaint have attained the second level, veneration, meaning they have been proclaimed heroic in virtue by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints with the approval of the pope.

The next level, beatification, generally requires documentation of one miracle (except in the case of a martyr). Canonization, the fourth level, requires two miracles.

The process can take decades or even centuries. Dr. Verret said advocacy for Mr. Toussaint was under way in the 1970s.

Some credit Mr. Toussaint with inspiring the creation of Catholic Charities, one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States. After being freed from slavery, he financially supported his former slave master’s widow through his work as a hairdresser for the rich and famous in New York City, including the family of Alexander Hamilton. Through Mr. Toussaint’s connections, he helped create several organizations serving the destitute of the city without regard to race.